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Last September I had a moment to catch up with Russ Peters, a C-46 pilot I worked with years ago. I caught him in Kenai, Alaska between flights, and I managed to coerce him into a quick look at his plane and a short talk about his job at Everts Air Fuel.

Everts Air is a Fairbanks-based air carrier composed of several separate airlines. Everts Air Alaska is a Part 135 airline that provides cargo and passenger service to interior Alaska. Everts Air Cargo is a Part 121 cargo airline. Everts Air Fuel is a Part 125 operation with a primary mission of flying fuel into remote Alaskan areas. The Air Cargo and Air Fuel side of the company operate DC-6s, C-46 Commandos, Embraer Brasilia EMB 120s and in the near future DC-9s. I believe they also have Piper Lances and C-208Bs running under a part 135 certificate.

I worked for the Everts Air Fuel for just over a year before moving over to the Part 121 cargo side. In the process I managed to rack up about 400 or so hours in the C-46 Commando, and 800 hours in the DC-6.

If I was going to choose I would say that I preferred the Air Fuel side, mainly because we had a great crew. Ron Klemm was Captain and Russ Peters (featured in the video) was the engineer. Russ and I had flown together at Hageland, and Ron was a longtime Alaska round engine guy. Ron retired recently with just under 40,000 hours of Alaskan bush flying in transport category aircraft. The year with Ron and Russ was one of those years I will always look back on and think, “Damn that was fun.” Of course, in the process, there was lots and lots of hard work … plus a memorable slide down the Donlin Creek runway with only one wing attached to the DC-6.

Working for Everts is a very blue collar existence. On the Fuel side you get used to the smell of diesel. Diesel fuel is Everts’ primary cargo, destined for the generators that power rural Alaska. Everts may be the largest single consumer of Avgas in the world, but the fuel guys live to haul diesel. You also help load and unload your own aircraft in all conditions.

The cargo pilots get a more regular schedule, but have to work earlier in the morning and later at night. We’ll talk more about the cargo side in a later post. I ran into Rob Evert as I was making this video–he was down in Kenai getting recurrent as a flight engineer. (It’s always good when the boss is willing to get his hands dirty with everyone else.) I’ll be back in Alaska this summer flying for Talkeetna Air Taxi, and I hope to hook up with Rob in Fairbanks for a more in-depth look at his company. I’m personally curious about the DC-9s. They’ve been talking about them for a few years, but I noticed on the Everts web site that there’s a picture of a DC-9 all dressed up in the Everts colors. It looks like it’s finally on the way!

While I was in Kenai, I also did a quick walkthrough of an Everts DC-6 fuel hauler. We’ll post that video soon.

In this C-46 Walkthrough video you’ll:

• Get a quick tour of the Everts Air Fuel facility in Kenai.
• Walk around a C-46 and learn about the fuel transfer equipment
• Learn about the bulk fuel system
• Get a quick tour of the cockpit
• Hear about how the C-46 handles and performs
• Learn the C-46 start sequence
• Hear what a fuel hauler’s job is like
• Learn about the manual gear-extension procedure

You can learn more about Everts on their web site: evertsair.com.

From the Web

Some more videos of Everts Air Fuel C-46s in action:

You can learn more about the C-46 (and see some great photos) on Michael Prophet’s C-46 Commando page.